Completely Disappointing

Let's start with the obvious things - Burnout Paradise is no where near as good as the series was before. The game is a lot of fun to play when you're doing events, but the problem is getting to those events, and more importantly failing an event, is really annoying. here's what I really didn't like about the game, which was most of it:

1. No retry, restart or try again - What good is a racing game if you can't restart the race or try it again if you don't get 1st place. Nothing is worse then coming in 2nd place a hair behind 1st to realize you have to drive allllllll the way back to start it again.

2. no instant jump around the map - Lets take a hint from Test Drive: unlimited... which was an open world racer with events around the map - that if you were really far and wanted to do a race you didn't have to drive for a half hour to get to it. You could go to your map view and quickly jump to where it was pointing.

3. No crash mode - Crash mode was one of the things that made the burnout series so great, yet they decided to take it out with a far less realistic version. I wasn't really a fan of the power ups, but this version is even worse.

4. Poor race makers - The little compass arrow that tries to point you in the direction of the finish line is not that helpful at all. Most of the time I spent looking at the mini map hoping I was going the right way, only to realize that I accidentally got on an on-ramp in the wrong direction. I get the idea of wanting you to find your own way, but this leads to me trying to look at the mini map more then road to make sure I'm still going in the right direction.

5. Switching Cars - I hate the fact that I have to drive to a junk yard to change vehicles - If I'm 100 miles away at a race that is for a specific model and I have the car - I don't want to have to drive to the junk yard, get it and drive all the way back - I just want to race. The fact that I HAVE to, especially since they're isn't a quick jump - really makes me get frustrated fast.

6. Traffic - Part of the fun of the burnout series was that you couldn't hit any traffic (oncoming or not). The thrill of barely squeaking by a semi truck and a car, inches from being smashed to bits was exciting. Now with the way you can traffic check and run into people, etc etc.. it just doesn't leave that excitement anymore.

7 . People? - I understand that they probably didn't want you driving over the people on sidewalks and what not - but no drivers? are we in some world where everyone has vanished and all is left is self driving cars? at least put some drivers in the car.

Overall, this game is a great disappointment, mostly because they left out simple things ( like quick jump on the map view, restart race) that would have made it much more enjoyable to play. I say don't bother with this game and buy Burnout 3: take down instead.

You can restart events, just hit right on the D-pad. The signs at the top during an event points you in the right direction. Most of your other complaints are valid though (although I find the traffic fun).